Faculty/Author Profile

David G. Samuels

Duval & Stachenfeld LLP

New York, NY, USA

David G. Samuels joined Duval & Stachenfeld LLP as a partner in 2006. He is Chair of the Firm’s Tax Exempt Organizations Practice Group and a member of the Firm’s Litigation Department and its Employment Practice Group. Mr. Samuels has, since 2007, been named annually as one of the Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers in the New York metropolitan area in the category of Non-Profit/Charities Law. He was named by Best Lawyers as its New York City Non-Profit/Charities Law Lawyer of the Year for 2016 and again in 2018.

Mr. Samuels has extensive experience representing numerous public charities and private foundations, including social service agencies, grant-making foundations, mental health facilities, educational organizations, and religious institutions. His clients include New York University, Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, Atran Foundation, Amherst College, Case Western Reserve, Hebrew Academy for Special Children, Social Science Research Council, the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, and the YWCA of the City of New York.

Mr. Samuels is a recognized expert on a wide range of issues involving charitable organizations, including compensation, governance, fiduciary duty, self-dealing and conflict of interest, prudent investments, and endowments and restricted funds. He teaches the course on Charitable Organizations as an adjunct professor at New York Law School. Mr. Samuels is former chair and a member of the Nonprofit Organizations Committee of the New York City Bar Association. He has chaired and participated in numerous continuing legal education and accounting education programs on nonprofit issues. Mr. Samuels is the lead editor and co-author of a treatise, Nonprofit Compensation, Benefits, and Employment Law, and has written extensively on nonprofit issues with numerous articles published in the New York Law Journal and elsewhere. He is also an experienced civil and appellate litigator and employment lawyer.

Mr. Samuels received an A.B. degree (cum laude) from Harvard College in 1974, a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1978, and an LL.M. from NYU School of Law in 1985. Mr. Samuels was Deputy Chief of the New York AG’s Charities Bureau from 1987 to 1995. He was previously a partner at Perlman & Perlman and at Butler, Fitzgerald & Potter. Mr. Samuels is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in New York.